Still in the business? Still writing loans? You BET!

Now that rates for simple, understandable, safe and predictable 30-year fixed mortgages are dropping to multi-decade lows, I'm getting a lot of emails asking if I'm still in the mortgage business.

Some folks heard that I had been hired as a consultant to do some online community building, technical project management and a bit of product management work. True that! Others then more recently heard that I was asked to come on full time as a Senior Product Manager for Internet Test & Measurement. True too!

Thing is, despite the full time "day job" in tech, I remain in the mortgage business for the very reasons I got in to it:

• Provide detailed analysis to folks who want to understand their options now and over time.
• Provide transparent access to wholesale lenders without any spin or attempts to earn more than a fair, fully disclosed fee for my services.
• Have some fun getting people safely through the maze and hurdles of purchase or refinance transactions.

Many years ago I had the good fortune to visit Montego Bay, Jamaica on business. A buddy and I decided we wanted to see the nightlife (and a lot of it) by staying out most of the night on the town. The best decision we made? To hire a taxi driver, who was well known and trusted by the folks we were staying with, to take care of us for the whole evening for one flat rate. Jamaica is the kind of place where it seems everybody wants to be your friend, but it turns your wallet is the true object of affection for a good number of the folks you encounter out and about. THAT is why having our guy to guide us, watch over us, take us to safe places and bring us home in one piece with no negotiating between one nightspot and another was WELL worth the flat fee we paid him.

By now you can probably guess the point of my story. My model is to negotiate a flat fee with you (typically 1% of the amount funded) and then from that point on to work on your behalf to get you safely to your destination with no funny business. Getting a mortgage doesn't have to be a game of wits where you pick amongst offers dangled at you by hungry hucksters. There are plenty of solid professionals who make an honest living by talking straight and by openly disclosing their compensation. I'm just one of them.

Back in the saddle

It has been over a year since I posted here, and much has gone on since.

During a year of huge transitions, I never went to far, but I didn't make it to blog-land.

I'm happy to report that many good things have been happening, allowing me to achieve several big dreams in one fell swoop:

• I have moved the focus of my daily routine to my favorite part of the Peninsula: Redwood City
• I have opened my own mortgage origination firm (Redwood City Funding)
• I have initiated a strong "giving back" program in the form of Rewarding Community InvolvementTM
• I have added a second revenue stream, to allow me to remain, as the accountants would say "well capitalized" during an unstable mortgage market: Since March, I have been providing professional services two days a week on contract to a valley tech firm. That work lets me focus on doing the right things for my mortgage business, not fighting for survival or chasing dollars down avenues I don't care to go.

So even though times are far from settled in the mortgage space, things are GOOD. Heck, I'm even beginning to see some thawing of pricing in the jumbo mortgage industry.

Drop me a line if you want to connect. I welcome questions about mortgage strategy any time.

Most balanced and detailed article on sub prime mess I've seen

The New Yorker published a very well written article on the "sub prime meltdown".

Recommended reading:
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2007/04/09/070409ta_talk_surowiecki

Short term, long term. Today's paper talks both

This morning, as I carried the paper inside, the headline just underneath the rainy-day plastic read, "Bay Area housing market keeps sliding - Median prices of both homes and condos fall in November." The article contains the quote everyone is looking for: "Absolutely, the bubble has popped" (Christopher Thornberg, an economist from Los Angeles).

So what's the big drop that shows the bubble has "popped" ? Lets see, a drop of 1.4% across all Bay Area counties, but continued gains in San Francisco and Marin counties. San Mateo dropped 1% while Santa Clara gained 1.8%. The big drops (real ones in my book) occurred in Solano County (-9%) and Sonoma County (-7%).

Bottom line: the trend for the SF Peninsula remains the same: stable or up.

Why? Simply turn to section B of the paper, where the headline on that page reads "Population expected to swell by 2 million - ABAG report says number of jobs and people will increase through 2035, but region's housing stock may not keep pace." That pretty much sums up the history of the "close in" Bay Area, where geography, weather, talent and opportunity keep people coming. Not just people, but JOBS. One more quote sums it up: "Roughly 1.5 million new jobs will be created in the Bay Area, with large increases in health and educational services, professional and managerial services, and arts and recreation and restaurant services."

So, if you have any plans to stick around, you'd do very well to buy your first home or move up to your next home sooner than later. Its simple supply versus demand and the long term trend is up, up, up.

/dtk

A disaster plan isn't a political thing (or is it?)

Last month was Disaster Preparedness Month.

When I lived on top of Kings Mountain in Woodside a few years ago, disaster preparedness was something the locals took very seriously. We were just a few people up the end of a long mountain road; first responders would have plenty to handle down below before sending anyone up to help us. So we had drills, and block captains and such. We used portable CB radios to communicate. We even had green "OK" and red "Need Help" signs to hang in the window. This was a long time before 9/11 and "ready.gov" and all.

Speaking of 9/11 and ready.gov, perhaps it is time to get back to disaster preparedness for preparedness sake, and put aside the suspicion of politically motivated fear-mongering that many of us had in '01 and '02 (and '03 and...).

I would like to provide a few good links for anyone interested in protecting their own family and friends from the implications of the next earthquake, massive power outage or whatever.

We have a very good resource that is local. The City and County of San Francisco maintain a website called http://www.72hours.org The name serves as a reminder that the first three days after any major disaster will be the most challenging. Count on nothing working (phones, power, water), nothing being open (no trips to Safeway or 7-11) and no-one helping you (including police, fire, ambulance) for the first three days. Anything that does work, or is open, or does arrive to help will be the exception, not the norm.

Don't let that prediction depress you. Instead, try to see the opportunity to make your own 72 hours more comfortable, safe and sane by following the common-sense preparation tips posted at 72hours.org.

The best thing about 72hours.org is that they have put all of the key information from their web site into a single document you can download and print. I have reviewed a few different sites and the 72 hours download kit pdf covers it all. If you would rather click-and-read, check out the web site's handy information kiosk style layout.

If you are curious what our Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has on the subject, I have those links handy for you too:

• DHS "Get a Kit" content
• DHS "Make a Plan" content
• DHS Content for businesses

While the DHS and San Francisco have almost the same content, the DHS site does suffer a bit from the political spin factor. If you want to feel patriotic, by all means use it. If you would rather read the content in a politically neutral presentation, use the 72hours site. Here's a taste of what I mean: September's National Preparedness Month page at DHS's ready.gov has a list of organizations who are working in partnership with the DHS to get the word out. What did they choose to call that list of city, state and local organizations? "Coalition Members" Argh.

Emigrant Direct raised their savings rate again. Now its 5.0%.

Emigrant Direct just raised their savings rate again. Now its 5.0%.

As I have mentioned in my previous posts on the "American Dream Account", their savings account is federally insured and does not require you to move any accounts, do direct deposit, make any time commitments like a certificate of deposit or any of that sort of thing.

All you do is hook the new account up to your existing checking account and then you can play big-time money manager and "sweep" excess funds into and out of a high yield savings account with a few mouse clicks.

Check out my page for the full explanation: http://davekarow.com/savings

Savings at Emigrant Direct now paying 4.8%

Emigrant Direct has just raised their savings rate to 4.8%.

That's federally insured and transferred in or out of your existing checking account with a few clicks once set up.

Check out my page for the full explaination: http://davekarow.com/savings

I just updated the banner there to show the new rate. Great stuff folks!